Sixty-Four Palms
by Kwizzic
Summary: The Hyuga clan, whose pale eyes saw almost- but not quite- everything. And that, perhaps, was fate. (Some NaruHina)
1. The Creative

Note: I'm using the Wilhelm/Baynes annotated translation of the _I Ching_ for the names of the trigrams and hexagrams (which is not really the best version, but it is the one I own, which does much to recommend it), and will be going in order.

Prompt: Sixty-four drabbles on the Hyuga clan, one for each of the sixty-four trigrams in Taoist divination.

* * *

 _Yin and yang in threes make eight trigrams:  
Heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, mountain, lake, and wind.  
Eight trigrams in twos make sixty-four hexagrams.  
 **The first hexagram: heaven over heaven, the Creative.**_

* * *

A child is born into a ruined city.

Her name is Hinata, for the sunflower. Her father did not approve of the name: though it is traditional, he feels it is too weak, too flimsy a name for his eldest child and heir. Her mother insisted, uncharacteristically, but did not explain why.

Three months before, a fox with nine tails had appeared in Konoha. It had the force to cause tsunamis and level mountains, but it crushed no mountains and brewed no waves. Instead, it destroyed a village and killed some hundreds of shinobi, devastating the forces of a land only recently at peace.

Yellow flowers are laid on the graves of the dead.

Yellow, like the hair of a young man laid to rest in a tomb. He died protecting a newborn son, and many tears were shed at his burial.

His son is three months old now.

Who will cry for him?

* * *

Hinata cries inconsolably from the moment she is born.

There is no apparent reason for it and no reliable way of stopping it. The doctor explains she has colic and shrugs in a way that says, 'It's out of my hands'. Her cries are mercifully quiet, but persistent. After hearing her wail for hours on end, the noise begins to grate on the nerves of everyone in the compound.

Hiashi is displeased, but says nothing: it is not the Hyuga way.

After the birth, the Lady Hyuga falls ill. Not dangerously so, but enough that she is weak and fevered and constantly exhausted, white eyes rimmed in red.

On the doctor's advice, her newborn daughter is taken from her. It's the best decision, he says firmly. Hinata is young and her immune system is weak. The Lady Hyuga needs rest, and should not be woken by her daughter's wails.

The baby girl is moved to a remote corner of the Hyuga clan compound.

There is no one to hear her incessant cries save her attendant.

Her attendant's name is Ko. He is a member of the branch family, a man of twenty who served for eight years as a chunin of some skill. Just a few weeks prior he was being considered for promotion to jounin on recommendation from his team captain. He would have been the first member of his genin team to make jounin.

But Ko is a loyal Hyuga.

He obeys.

Instead of accepting the promotion, he turned in his headband. He may rejoin the force in later years, he thinks, but his duty is to the clan now. His teammates were surprised and dismayed- they didn't understand why he should sacrifice his chance at success to stand by the bedside of a days-old child.

He shrugged off their objections- they weren't of the clan. They couldn't understand.

He tends Hinata with devotion. He knows well how to look after infants- three younger siblings and a father disabled in the war left him with plenty of experience. It's an honor to protect and provide for the future clan head. Lady Hinata is their hope for a better, stronger clan.

She will create their future.


	2. The Receptive

Hinata's mother's name is never given in canon. Until someone gives me information otherwise, Hinata's mother will be referred to by the name Yui, written with the kanji "維", meaning 'supportive'. Neji's mother will be referred to by the name Haruna, written with the kanji "春奈", meaning "springtime, apple tree".

* * *

 _Yin and yang in threes make eight trigrams:  
Heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, mountain, lake, and wind.  
Eight trigrams in twos make sixty-four hexagrams.  
_ ** _The second hexagram: earth over earth, the Receptive._**

* * *

Hinata is two weeks old and no longer cries constantly.

The Lady Hyuga has recovered from her illness- at least, she no longer coughs and her skin is cool to the touch- but still her pallor persists. She has lost a good deal of weight and has dark shadows under her eyes. She is too weak to get out of bed without help, and is prone to dizziness and headaches.

Her continuing weakness dismays the clan. The recent death of Hizashi's wife just after childbirth has not been forgotten. If Haruna, sturdy and full of life, could succumb to illness, what chance does the quiet, small Lady Hyuga have in making it through the month?

The more cynical of the clansmen mutter, far from Hiashi's earshot, that at least she gave them an heir before kicking the bucket.

But as days go by, she shows no signs of worsening (nor of improving).

Every day, she asks to see her daughter.

Reluctantly, the doctor agrees, and Hinata's crib is moved to the Lady Hyuga's room, just beside her bed.

That's when Hinata stops crying altogether. She gazes up at her mother with sleepy white eyes and occasionally blows bubbles or smiles a toothless grin. Mostly though, she's quiet and contented, happy to suck on her toes when she isn't sleeping. She has just a tuft of silky black fuzz for hair and long, long, eyelashes.

Naturally, her mother just _knows_ she's the most beautiful baby in the world.

* * *

Neji is just over one-and-a-half years old.

He has mastered the art of walking and moves at great speed around the garden whenever he is permitted to. Unlike Hinata, he has no personal attendant or bodyguard and no mother. Similarly to Hinata, his father is frequently too busy to look after him. With most everyone else busy with reconstruction, he is more or less on his own.

It is a chilly afternoon in January. Light snowfall dusts the ground.

Neji doesn't like the cold.

On the edge of the courtyard, a door is cracked open.

Neji approaches, cautiously. The crack is too narrow for even a toddler like him to maneuver his way through into the room. He doesn't like that- it's cold and he wants to go inside, but he isn't allowed in any of the training rooms. He pushes on the door, hard.

It slides enough to the side that he slips and falls through the opening, landing heavily. _Thump_.

"Who's there?"

"Ow," Neji says disconsolately.

A woman Neji recognizes only dimly is sitting up in bed. She is very pretty, with long, dark hair that falls around her shoulders. An adult would see the dark circles under her eyes and the unhealthy paleness of her face and conclude that she is recovering from illness, but Neji is only one-and-a-half, and illness is not something he has experience with.

"Is that- Neji?"

He nods and pushes himself up unsteadily, toddling over to the side of the bed.

The woman smiles. "Did you come to see your baby cousin?"

Neji doesn't know what she's talking about. There has been talk of a baby, but Neji pays more attention to the dragonflies in the garden than he does to the adults' conversations. Baby is just a word for something he has never seen, and it didn't interest him much.

He's interested now.

"Yes!" he says emphatically, nodding.

"Come over here," she whispers, beckoning him. "I'll lift you up so you can see in the crib."

Obediently, Neji holds up his arms to be picked up. Her arms shake a little as he hefts him to her knee, but she is not yet weak enough that she cannot lift a child.

On the far side of the bed, Hinata sleeps in her wooden crib.

Neji leans over, watching in fascination.

"That's Hinata. She's your baby cousin," the woman says quietly, smiling. "Can you say hi?"

"Hi," Neji breathes.

Hinata scrunches up her face and yawns. Then she blinks up at her cousin sleepily.

"Hold out your hand," whispers the woman.

Neji lowers his hand into the crib, giggling when Hinata's eyes follow his finger. Then Hinata bats weakly at the air with her hand, and he moves his hand closer to hers. She grabs his thumb and he squeaks in surprise.

"She likes you," the woman says. "And no wonder- you're the closest thing she's got to a big brother, aren't you?"

Neji smiles.

After a moment, he tries to pull back his hand, but Hinata won't let go. Her fist is surprisingly strong, and Neji isn't much stronger. He frowns and tugs again.

"All right, Hinata," says the woman, laughing. "Time to let go of cousin Neji."

Hinata is placated with a corner of her blanket in place of Neji's finger and settles back into her crib, eyes slipping shut easily.

"Night night," Neji whispers.

"Good boy," says the woman fondly. "Now, give her a kiss and then it's naptime."

He leans down and kisses her forehead clumsily, then accepts a similar kiss from the woman- Hinata's mama, he guesses now.

He's heard that babies come from mamas. Even he comes from a mama, it's just that his mama is dead. Papa took him once to a pretty meadow with flowers, and said that was where mama was. Neji didn't see her, but Papa knew everything, so he was probably right.

"All right, off you go. It's time for you to go eat, isn't it?"

The dinner bell is ringing.

* * *

Neji will not remember that day.

He won't remember leaning over the edge of the wooden crib in the dark room. He won't remember his aunt's cool hands and smile and soft, gentle voice, and the kiss on his forehead. In fact, this is the last time he will speak to his aunt for several years. When he sees her again, she will be a stranger to him, and the circumstances will be less pleasant.

He won't remember Hinata.

He won't remember reaching out a hand to touch her soft black hair. He won't remember the way she grabbed his finger and held on tight and didn't want to let go.

In the dark, where no one told them they weren't allowed to be friends.


	3. Pushing Upward

_Yin and yang in threes make eight trigrams:  
Heaven, earth, fire, water, thunder, mountain, lake, and wind.  
Eight trigrams in twos make sixty-four hexagrams.  
_ _ **The third hexagram: earth over wind, Pushing Upward.**_

* * *

Hinata is a quiet toddler.

Despite not talking much, she has an extensive vocabulary for her age and just the slightest hint of a childish lisp. Her first word was "Mama", and her first full sentence was "Thank you, Ko". That, more or less, gives you the right idea as to who her two favorite people are.

As soon as she learns to walk, Ko takes her on walks around the garden, to strengthen her arms and legs. She won't be strong enough to start training until she's about three and a half at the earliest, and then only with simple kata. She's still growing, and any strenuous exercise could damage her young bones. What's more, the Byakugan can only be activated by a child with some chakra control, and by all accounts children below the age of three are more or less incapable of molding chakra.

The Hyuga have been training children as soldiers for generations; they have the process down to a science.

The consensus, among the elders of the clan, is that Lady Hinata shows great promise. Her quiet disposition is supposed to be a sign of a calm and measured temper; this is always a good sign. The Hyuga clan is one ill-managed by a hothead, and Hiashi's firm reserve has served them well. They believe she takes after her father in all the ways that matter, though of course she is her mother in miniature, with the same long eyelashes and fair skin and heart-shaped face.

Like her father, she rarely smiles.

It isn't that she's unhappy- more often it's because she's shy. Her smiles are reserved for the people she knows and likes- most often her mother, whom she adores. The Lady Hyuga and the young Lady Hinata can frequently be heard giggling late at night, when Hiashi is too busy to disapprove of his wife reading bedtime stories in silly voices to the clan heir.

* * *

When Hinata turns two, her parents take her to meet the Lord Hokage.

Ko dresses her in a neat white kimono, prim and proper as the Hyuga heir should be. Her hair is combed and trimmed for the occasion, falling around her chin in the front. She doesn't quite know what's going on, but her father is there and so she is quiet and obedient. She scarcely speaks even when spoken to, and then only after encouragement from her mother.

She and her father are mirror images, her mother says, laughing. Watchful and grave.

Hinata holds Ko's hand tightly.

What Hinata doesn't know is that their visit is traditional; that her grandfather and grand mother, thirty-four years prior, took their twin sons Hiashi and Hizashi to meet the Hokage. Both of them, because there was always a chance that the elder son might die from some childhood sickness, and so Hizashi wouldn't be sealed until he was no longer needed as a spare.

Hinata does not know that thirty-four years ago was the last time her father and her uncle were considered equals.

Instead, she holds still and silent as Ko adjusts her sash.

Hinata's mother brushes rouge on her cheeks.

It isn't to accentuate her beauty- no, it is a calculated move. Two years later, long after her fever is gone, she still bears the signs of protracted illness. The rouge will help to hide her persistent pallor and thin cheeks. She dabs pale cream under her eyes to hide the dark circles there, and smears wax mixed with red powder on her lips to make them less thin and pinched. The other clans will have representatives at the event, and they _cannot_ be allowed to know that she is weakened.

She can't be absent today, and so she dons her mask.

The Lady Hyuga smiles at Hinata and tweaks her daughter's nose, glancing in the mirror one last time to make sure the shadows under her eyes don't show.

Hinata knows her mother is beautiful.

It isn't just the embroidered silk kimono or the jade hairpin or her soft white hands that haven't touched a kunai in years. It isn't even her long eyelashes or shining black hair or her heart-shaped face, though to be certain the Lady Hyuga is known to be strikingly elegant.

It's that she smells like jasmine and her voice is musical, and she always leans down to look Hinata right in the eye when they talk. It's that her laugh is soft and rippling, and when Hinata squeezes her hand she always squeezes back, and that she always pretends to get it wrong and kiss Hinata's ear or her elbow or eyebrow instead of her cheek.

Hinata reaches up and takes her mother's hand.

* * *

Hinata is tired and confused and she doesn't like her kimono, and she wants to go home.

She's frightened, too. She's never seen so many people in one place before, and they all have odd eyes with holes in them. Most of them are dark- black, even, like mama's hair! She's never seen anyone with black eyes before, and they're all looking at her and she doesn't know why. There's a hole in their heads and she's looking into the dark inside, and it's scary and ugly. It isn't only black, and there are other people with green and blue and yellow rings, but all of them have black holes in their eyes.

The only thing that keeps her from bursting into tears as they walk into the reception is her mother holding her hand and smiling at her soothingly.

Hiashi frowns at his wife's light spirits, and the quirk of his mouth clearly shows that he doesn't think she's taking this seriously.

Instantly, the Lady Hyuga is the perfect blank-faced diplomat, solemn and dignified- though she sneaks Hinata a wink when Hiashi turns his back.

Hinata smiles and hides a giggle.

Her father is speaking- a loud, low rumble from far overhead. "The clan is well and stronger than ever," he says curtly. "The new generation shows great promise. And how does your clan fare, Fugaku?"

"It doesn't do to say too much about inner affairs," replies another. "But surely even you, Hiashi, have heard how well Itachi is doing."

Hiashi's curt frown sours further- a barely restrained grimace. "I have, yes."

"He is all we could hope for in a successor." The man glances down at Hinata, looking at her but not meeting her wide-eyed gaze. "Yours is less impressive, but she may amount to something in time, I suppose."

Hiashi opens his mouth, a venomous rebuke on his tongue-

The Lady Hyuga smiles placidly, her pale eyes inscrutable. "And how is your younger son, little Sasuke?" she asks in light tones. "I hope Mikoto is doing well. Hinata would have been in his class at the Academy- but her training, of course, will be supervised by the clan. Unlike some, we don't entrust our heirs to outsiders."

Hinata's mama is all steel under her silk.

"Be that as it may," Fugaku mutters.

"The Uchiha clan does not believe themselves above standard training," says a woman with dark eyes and a thin smile, approaching. "The Hyuga have always been unique in their insistence on remaining insular to the functions of the village." She smiles. "Lady Hyuga."

"Ah, Lady Uchiha!" Hinata's mama's smile is genuine now.

"Shall we speak elsewhere?" Mikoto suggests demurely. "I'm sure the men have very important business to discuss. I wouldn't want to interrupt them."

"Of course," Hinata's mother says serenely. "Hiashi."

Her husband dismisses her with a wave. Yui takes her daughter's hand and leads her over to a corner. Mikoto follows, nodding politely to Hiashi and touching her own husband's elbow in farewell.

The moment they're out of earshot, they both start laughing.

"It's wonderful to see you," Mikoto says fondly. "You've scarcely been seen in the village since the ambassadors came in April. I thought for certain you'd gone out of the country sightseeing and Hiashi was covering it up."

"Clan matters," Hinata's mother says smoothly. "It couldn't be helped."

"Not to mention your little angel here." Mikoto leans down and grins at Hinata. "Hello, there, baby."

Hinata squeaks and ducks behind her mother's leg, pressing her cheek against the soft fabric.

"She's a little bit shy," Yui murmurs apologetically. "Don't take it personally. I think it comes of spending so much time in the compound."

Mikoto tuts reproachfully, straightening. "I was teasing earlier, but you really don't get enough fresh air. Even the children of the clan head need to run around and play every once in a while. Sasuke just _lives_ for going to the park every week. It isn't fair of Hiashi-"

"Mikoto," Hinata's mother says in a warning tone. "Hiashi is only doing what's best for the clan."

The dark-eyed woman looks like she wants to protest, but shrugs, looking glum. "It seems like that's all that matters these days, isn't it? Everything for the clan, the clan. Things just aren't the same without Kushina around to yell at us to lighten up."

"Yes, well. Her clan died out when she was a child," Hinata's mama points out coolly. "She could hardly understand."

"That's probably true. My heart breaks for her, though. All she ever wanted was a family, and then- well, you know what happened to her son, right?"

"Gossip is beneath you, Mikoto," she reprimands gently. "Tragedies like that should be left alone."

"That's true. But still. A fate worse than death."

"Some sacrifices have to be made," the Lady Hyuga says quietly, "And we can only be happy if our children are spared."

Mikoto frowns. "Yui, you aren't made of stone."

"How is Sasuke doing? I hear Itachi quite dotes on him," Hinata's mother says firmly, and it is clear the conversation is over.

* * *

As it turns out, Mikoto says, Itachi adores his little brother even more than toddler Sasuke admires him. She'd never worried about Itachi resenting his new sibling, he was so mature even as a child- but they get along so wonderfully the only real problem is convincing Itachi to stop giving Sasuke his dessert, since it only makes the toddler excitable before bedtime.

"Itachi is wonderful about it all," Mikoto concludes. "He never complains, even when he comes back from training and Sasuke's after him to play the moment he walks in the door."

Yui smiles and nods.

Smiles and nods and tries not to think about when she was a young girl from the branch family, watching the two sons of the clan head playing in the courtyard- one with a headband tied, for the first time, over his forehead.

 _"Hey," Hiashi had said then, young and reckless and grinning. "We're still brothers. It doesn't mean anything."_

 _And the younger twin had shoved his older brother into the koi pond. He folded his arms triumphantly. "Of course not. I'm still more talented."_

 _"But not better looking!"_

Yui smiles and nods as Mikoto chatters on.

The Lady Uchiha is fortunate, Yui thinks. She need never sit in the dark agonizing over the prospect of a second child. She need never fear for her cheerful, lively second son, that he be branded and sealed and subjugated for the sake of the clan. She could have a third child, even a fourth, without consigning them to serve their siblings.

 _We can only be happy if our children are spared._


End file.
